I know Philip Kerr from his children’s novels and didn’t realize he wrote stories for adults. While searching for another book, I came upon his Dark Matter, a novel written in 2002 and it immediately caught my attention. It’s 1696 and Christopher Ellis has just taken on a job assisting Sir Isaac Newton at the Royal Mint. As Warden, it’s Newton’s job to hunt down counterfeiters. A challenging enough job but when mysterious murders start happening, Ellis plays Watson to Newton as an earlier version of Sherlock Holmes. Clues and body counts rise as Ellis and Newton face personal danger in the politically volatile back streets of London. Throw in a mix of alchemy and codes and we’re off on a most puzzling case. Turns out that more than the economy of the realm is threatened. A century’s old massacre pits Huguenots against Catholics in a revenge plot only the brain of Newton can piece together. This is a thoroughly fun historical thriller. Kerr excels with this one!
ellisnelson 
Reblogged this on Jude's Threshold and commented:
Sounds like an intriguing novel!
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I learned about Isaac Newton’s involvement with the Royal Mint from Neal Stephenson’s “Baroque Cycle”. I’m tempted to read this so that I can pretend it takes place in the same universe as that mighty door-stopper of a trilogy … 😉
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I entered a comment before, but I don’t see it here. Anyway, we ordered the book. It looks like Kerr wrote other adult books as well. Thanks for the review.
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Yes, he has some WW II novels. He also did a series for kids called The Children of the Lamp.
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Wonderful review, Ellis. I read it to Bill. He said the novel great and that he likes unique stories like this. Thank you for the introduction to this book.
We wrote the title and author down.
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